The polymath talks to ELLE editor-in-chief Robbie Myers about Alzheimer's, getting men involved in "women's issues," and feeling like a 20-year-old.

There is an unspoken rule that when you interview a woman of accomplishment, someone who's worked very hard her whole professional life to build something meaningful and to actually succeed at making people's lives better, you cannot lead with a comment about the way she looks, lest you stand accused of "reducing" her to her physicality. Okay, so I apologize. But when Maria Shriver walks into a room, you can't help but notice that a force has come into your midst, and it takes a minute to adjust your eyes to all that beauty. The hair, yes, the hair! And the eyes, the famous family jawline, the deep voice with only ever-so-slight hints of the Hyannis Port summers that she left behind to forge her own path as a journalist, first at Philadelphia's KYW-TV and then at CBS and NBC, eschewing the Kennedy family business to pursue a professional life as a member of the one group politicians most fear: the press.

It's hard to think of another person who's lived so many different, public lives: as a journalist, news anchor, Kennedy, first lady of California, documentary producer, children's book author, Twitter powerhouse (2.33 million followers), and, with the recent film Still Alice, executive producer of an Oscar-winning movie. Then there's her role as mother to Katherine, 25, Christina, 23, Patrick, 21, and Christopher, 17. Of Maria's many causes and passions, the one to which she is turning her focus right now is Alzheimer's disease. Her 2010 Shriver Report—the second of three heavily researched, highly influential reports on our country's most pressing cultural issues and their potential solutions— illuminated the little-known fact that Alzheimer's is very much a women's disease: Two-thirds of its victims are women, and more than 60 percent of the caregivers for those suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are women. Now, through her philanthropic organization, A Woman's Nation, Maria is launching Wipe Out Alzheimer's, a full- court-press campaign to fight the disease. She and I spoke about that big push, harnessing power outside of Washington, and what the culture is most craving.

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Robbie Myers: In your most recent Shriver Report, you announced that the new face of poverty in America is the working woman.

Maria Shriver: I was really happy that the President in the State of the Union talked about pretty much everything that we recommended—[a] living wage, family leave, equal pay, community college access—but [our report] also recommended that women needed to be smart about family planning, that they need to understand that having a child is a financial decision as much as an emotional decision. That they need to pursue their education, to be financially savvy. If they are employers, they're responsible for giving the equality that they'd ask for.

I love the title of the non-profit you founded, "A Woman's Nation." Where did that come from?

MS: I want to live in a country where women and men are equal, they're paid equally, where we have a conversation that is not machismo, as the Pope says, but is considerate. That is caring, not combative, and that seeks to raise our children to respect people of different genders, different persuasions, different religions. If I were imagining a "more perfect union," what would it look like? A woman's nation looks at social justice issues, economic empowerment, and it uses media to inform and ignite these conversations and, ideally, come up with ideas that can be turned into action.

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How do we get men to care about "women's" issues?

MS: I start from the premise that they do. I don't look at them as the enemy. I'm a mother of two boys. I'm a sister to four brothers, and I have a partner in Arnold in raising four children. Men care about their daughters, wives, sisters, and mothers, and I believe that how we invite them to be part of the discussion is critical. It's up to us as women to be open.

In Congress, it's mostly married white men making decisions on so-called women's issues. Who's representing the new face of poverty? Who's representing just women in general?

MS: I don't look to Washington to see who's representing. When I was 17 and my dad was running for Vice President, everybody in my family was in the front of the plane, where the candidate was, the chief of staff, and the speechwriters. I was in the back of the plane with the press. I was like, "These are the people who are really impacting the people in the front." If I were on the plane today, I'd get off the plane.

You would? Why?

MS: Because I don't think either one of those places [is] the place that is inspiring or igniting or impacting. A lot of what you saw on Capitol Hill this past year when it talked about abuse in the military—that came from culture, from documentary, from women on the ground, from agitators, from architects of change. When I handed the Shriver Report to the President and said, "This is the new face of poverty," that came from a team—the Center for American Progress, the Shriver Report team—doing work and agitating. The movie that I did, Paycheck to Paycheck—that came from the Shriver Report and HBO. Today, Washington moves when what I call Main Street moves. You saw with marriage equality, the Arab Spring, that all kinds of cultural tools are pushing Washington.

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It's great when women want to run, but I don't think that's the only way to have an impact. I, at a very young age, made a decision: I don't want to do what my family does—they felt that the only way to have an impact was through elected office. I didn't believe that; I thought the news business was going to have a huge impact. I also had the example of my mother running a worldwide nonprofit [Special Olympics], and she used sports and politics to ignite change all over the world. I saw her always being the only woman in the room, always being a warrior. And then at the age of 21 I fell in love with somebody who was very different from any kind of man I had met. So I pursued my journalism. I married someone from a different party. I was there—front-row seat: a Democrat in a Republican administration. It taught me that the idea that the other is the enemy is misguided. There were good people in the Republican party; I was married to one of them.

You're drawn to truth telling.

MS: Well, I'm drawn outside the box. I'm drawn to making it up as I go along. I'm drawn to creative people, to flawed people, to pained people. Because I see myself as one.

You told me recently that your son goes to weekly Bible classes with dozens of his peers, and that the minister there told you that he felt those kids were looking to be "reparented." Can you tell me more?

MS: I don't go every week—I go to my own church—but I have gone with him. I'm really interested in the concept that, as many people have said, we're a nation now of orphans. That people don't see themselves as belonging to institutions the way our parents did. People are saying, "I don't want to be a Democrat or a Republican. I want to be an Independent." While the Internet has been fantastic in so many ways, I think it has made people quite isolated. They need connection, to know that someone cares about them. People want to belong. That's why when you lose your job, or your parents, or your children, you wobble, or you crash, because you're asking, "What is my purpose?"

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So what led you to this huge Alzheimer's initiative?

MS: Well, my father, obviously. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a month before my husband decided to run for governor. I wrote a children's book [What's Happening to Grandpa?] really as a way to explain it to myself and to my children. [That laid the groundwork for] The Alz­heimer's Project, a four-part HBO series that's the largest television undertaking to explain Alzheimer's. In the process of doing that, I started noticing everywhere I'd go—there are a lot of women with Alzheimer's. And, like, "Wow. There's a lot of women taking care of everybody with Alzheimer's." We reported for the first time that Alzheimer's disproportionately impacts women's brains and it disproportionately impacts women as caregivers, so they have to drop out to take care of a husband or whatever. Then, all of a sudden, I testified to Congress to help pass a national act. I became more and more of an advocate for increased funding, understanding, awareness. And now I've launched the largest global women's health initiative to wipe out Alzheimer's.

What is your goal with the project?

MS: I'm trying to get a million women to join me to be educated about what Alzheimer's is and isn't. To understand that if you're a woman in your early sixties, you're twice as likely to get it [as] you are to get breast cancer. To understand that you probably will end up caring for some- body with Alzheimer's, and that will affect your financial future. I'm trying to raise millions of dollars so we can study women's brains and understand—is this hormonal? Is it stress? Is it linked to depression? I want to put a fire under men and women who are elected to increase the funding, because it's paltry. This thing is like a high-speed train, and it's coming right to your door.

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What should women know to help ward off the disease?

MS: First of all, cardiovascular health is connected to brain health. "Smart games" don't cure Alzheimer's, but they keep your brain active. You must continue to learn—isolation is detrimental to brain health. You need community. A lot of studies show a connection between depression and Alzheimer's, between stress and Alzheimer's. To be mindful is helpful. To eat healthy is helpful. I can't sit here and tell you, "Oh, if you take resveratrol you'll ward off Alzheimer's." But I say to myself, "It can't hurt."

Do you feel like this is the beginning of something for you? Or is this the summation of what you know so far?

MS: Both. I feel really blessed. I find that I feel in many ways like I'm 20. I'm surrounded by people in their twenties because of my kids. I have many more friends in their twenties—17 to 25—than I do my age.

Really?

MS: Many more. I'm also aware that I'm going to be 60 this year. I want to approach my life with the same enthusiasm that I did when I got my first job. I'm also aware that I'm entering the time when a lot of people are getting Alzheimer's, I'm entering a decade when people I know get sick. In the last four years I've had a lot of changes in my own life. So I'm trying to stay in a place of gratitude and acceptance and to get rid of the fear that we all have when we're heading into a place where we don't really know where we're going. I'm just like, "Okay, let's go."

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